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So I followed this guide and I don't really understand what is going on. All it has done is make it so my uTorrent only works when connected to a specific AirVPN server. All of my web browsing and such still goes through the VPN though. If I disconnect from AirVPN my torrents stop. I reconnect and they start again, but now Whatsmyip.org shows that I'm connected to the VPN.

You have to do the final step where you add the routing table entries with a "Netmask" of 192.0.0.0.

Except instead of 192.168.1.254 it should be whatever your default gateway is.

You either missed this step out, or made some error. Do "route print" in a command window. There must be routing table entries with a "Netmask" of "192.0.0.0" that match the original routing table entry with a mask of "0.0.0.0" (i.e. same "Gateway").

Awesome that was exactly the problem. I forgot to change the 254 at the end when I copy pasted. Working like a charm now.

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The images are still missing and I am unable to download the zipped HTML file either. Please help.

I can attempt the manual without the screenshots, but would be much easier with them.

Thanks a lot

I am reluctant to change the guide to point at images somewhere else, because it is a lot of work, given the image names on such services will be completely different, and maybe even 32 random characters or something. If AirVPN provide hosting for images, then I might do it.

Previously, above I had posted a link to Bayfiles, a Pirate Bay affiliate that allowed zip files to be shared. But Bayfiles has apparently died. So I have put the same file on Mega:

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I have downloaded the guided, cheers, btw the images show on the forum as well now. strange.

I have a couple more questions relating to the guide.

- What are your thoughts on implementing this in a VM (virtual PC in my case)? Will this leak any vital information? This will make the setting more portable to more around without having to set this up from scratch.

- What are your thoughts on saving openVPN client credentials in a text file to avoid having to retype it every time, ie using (auth-user-pass pass.txt)?

Thanks for all the help

Hi,

Thanks for the great guide.

The images are still missing and I am unable to download the zipped HTML file either. Please help.

I can attempt the manual without the screenshots, but would be much easier with them.

Thanks a lot

I am reluctant to change the guide to point at images somewhere else, because it is a lot of work, given the image names on such services will be completely different, and maybe even 32 random characters or something. If AirVPN provide hosting for images, then I might do it.

Previously, above I had posted a link to Bayfiles, a Pirate Bay affiliate that allowed zip files to be shared. But Bayfiles has apparently died. So I have put the same file on Mega:

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- What are your thoughts on implementing this in a VM (virtual PC in my case)? Will this leak any vital information? This will make the setting more portable to more around without having to set this up from scratch.

...

Many people do use a VM. It reduces the possibility of a client program (e.g. browser) spying on your machine and reporting the information it finds.

But I think many people try this approach with torrenting in mind, simply because they do not want to have to use the VPN for everything in their normal usage. When they do this, since they intend to use their host system for most things, and the VM only for torrenting, there is no need for a set up like the one described here on the VM.

But for someone not familiar with VM-s, this is a steep learning curve. Steeper I think than getting through my guide. And you will find that there are lots of issues with sharing file systems between the VM and your host system, if you have any intention of seeding back what you download for any length of time (as those on private trackers generally need to).

...

- What are your thoughts on saving openVPN client credentials in a text file to avoid having to retype it every time, ie using (auth-user-pass pass.txt)?

...

You do not need to type anything "every time" with the set up described in the guide.

Is this an issue with using the AirVPN client program? I do not use that. I am the wrong person to ask.

You could use the AirVPN client program for this instead of the standard OpenVPN client program if you want.

But you could not use "network lock". And I do not know what other features of the AirVPN client would be of much help to you when your intention is not to use the VPN for anything but torrenting.

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2.) Install Windows XP SP 3 (easily available) into a virtualbox instance, it's easy to do and follow the on screen prompts you just need the install disk (if you have an image and don't want to burn a cd, use http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/ and mount the disk) with a couple gb of ram and some disk space allocated (fixed disk is faster)

3.) Install the AirVPN client in the VM

4.) Configure a shared folder with VirtualBox to move files back and forth or use ftp if you're paranoid about it getting infected and spreading via the share.

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I know this is an unusual request NaDre but I'm still having problems after following your instructions completely and torrents will not download now. Would you be willing to connect through a remote session with teamviewer and check the config of everything?

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I know this is an unusual request NaDre but I'm still having problems after following your instructions completely and torrents will not download now. Would you be willing to connect through a remote session with teamviewer and check the config of everything?

Have you tried using Microsoft's Process Explorer program to watch what is going on while downloading the Ubuntu desktop torrent, as suggested in the guide?

What interface does Process Explorer show uTorrent listening on? Is it the VPN IP address? If so, is it correct? Have you changed the AirVPN server you are using since you configured uTorrent with the VPN IP address? If so it will have changed. In the screen shots you first posted, the download seemed to be working, although you had mo incoming connections.

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Great Guide! For me, it was the perfect mix of challenging yet readable. I am getting one "problem" though. When I try to suspend the VPN, I get the following error for my torrents tracker status.

Error: Offline - SocketException: Permission denied: connect

However, this doesn't seem to affect my torrent as it is happily transferring but the error message remains. If I remove the 64.0.0.0 route in the table then the error goes away. Specifically, removing this line makes the error go away.

route add 64.0.0.0 mask 192.0.0.0 %GATEWAY%

Also, off topic. When going to http://whatismyipaddress.com/, I'm still see my old IP address until I open a new session. This doesn't seem right because I'm specifically browsing in incognito mode (no cookies,tracking,etc.) to do this testing. It seems like Windows may be caching the routing table in memory for individual processes.

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I would ditch the uTorrent - Client in favor for qBittorrent. There you can limit your VPN connection to the TUN / TAP interface very comfortly in the advanced settings. No need to fiddle around with routing tables and uTorrent.

Plus, it is available for Linux and Windows and it's open source and no ads do come with it.

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However, this doesn't seem to affect my torrent as it is happily transferring but the error message remains. If I remove the 64.0.0.0 route in the table then the error goes away. Specifically, removing this line makes the error go away.

route add 64.0.0.0 mask 192.0.0.0 %GATEWAY%

Also, off topic. When going to http://whatismyipaddress.com/, I'm still see my old IP address until I open a new session. This doesn't seem right because I'm specifically browsing in incognito mode (no cookies,tracking,etc.) to do this testing. It seems like Windows may be caching the routing table in memory for individual processes.

The error message suggests that you have fallen back to using the default gateway, but that is then blocked by the firewall. Are you sure you have put the correct address in the client (uTorrent?) config?

If the peer you are downloading from has an address in the 64.0.0.0/192.0.0.0 subnet, then removing the routing table entry would put that traffic back on the VPN, and avoid the firewall block. Have you tried watching what is happening using Process Explorer to see for sure what interface is being used?

When you have inserted the routing table entries with the 192.0.0.0 mask, you will be browsing using the real gateway. So of course whatismyipaddress will show your real IP address.

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The reason for the routing table changes is so you can browse using the real interface while the torrent client uses the VPN. Are you suggesting the qBittorrent somehow takes care of that too?

And you still need to ensure that the firewall is letting incoming connections in for the VPN interface.

And even if qBittorrent attempts to ensure only the configured interface is used for torrent traffic (does it? Vuze does.), I think it would be wise to configure the firewall to block qBittorrent from using the real interface.

So qBittorrent saves you from having to reconfigure the client when you change servers. And that is all.

===

If anyone is looking for an alternative to uTorrent and Vuze, and does not like qBittorrent either, Deluge can also be used within this framework. But Deluge requires the IP address of the VPN interface rather than the name of the interface, like uTorrent. It appears to me that Deluge is more widely accepted as an allowed client by private trackers than qBittorrent.

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The reason for the routing table changes is so you can browse using the real interface while the torrent client uses the VPN. Are you suggesting the qBittorrent somehow takes care of that too?

And you still need to ensure that the firewall is letting incoming connections in for the VPN interface.

And even if qBittorrent attempts to ensure only the configured interface is used for torrent traffic (does it? Vuze does.), I think it would be wise to configure the firewall to block qBittorrent from using the real interface.

So qBittorrent saves you from having to reconfigure the client when you change servers. And that is all.

===

If anyone is looking for an alternative to uTorrent and Vuze, and does not like qBittorrent either, Deluge can also be used within this framework. But Deluge requires the IP address of the VPN interface rather than the name of the interface, like uTorrent. It appears to me that Deluge is more widely accepted as an allowed client by private trackers than qBittorrent.

Would establishing a tunnel from a virtual machine then running the torrent client from the vm provide a less advanced end user similar functionality?

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Above I said, "But for someone not familiar with VM-s, this is a steep learning curve. Steeper I think than getting through my guide."

Let me try to provide some support for my opinion. Lots of people have mentioned in various threads here about using a VM. But go into "General & Suggestions" and click "Most Viewed".

Ah, missed that :-) Was curious- I do not use vm's for tunneling anyway. I setup old hosts in another segment for specific processes. I suppose that puts me in the minority since I haven't viewed many posts about that. ;-)

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The reason for the routing table changes is so you can browse using the real interface while the torrent client uses the VPN.

Great guide and that's what i was looking for, but as I am not a real networking expert I have a question:

What are the caveats If I follow the guide to the letter but don't modify the utorrent options (i.e. not changing the net.bound_ip etc.).

The firewall will make sure that only the VPN interface is used for torrenting and I will be able to use the default interface for everything else. The firewall will also block utorrent from using the default interface and disallow incoming connections going through the same in case the VPN connection is broken. I won't need to change the routing entries either when I am connected to a different AirVpn server.

Is there any potential problems that I can not see with this setup?, or do i have to have the utorrent modifications done for 100% safety?

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What are the caveats If I follow the guide to the letter but don't modify the utorrent options (i.e. not changing the net.bound_ip etc.).

The firewall will make sure that only the VPN interface is used for torrenting and I will be able to use the default interface for everything else. The firewall will also block utorrent from using the default interface and disallow incoming connections going through the same in case the VPN connection is broken.

...

Is there any potential problems that I can not see with this setup?, or do i have to have the utorrent modifications done for 100% safety?

...

If you don't modify the uTorrent parameters, then when the default gateway is in place, uTorrent will try to use that for outgoing traffic, and be blocked by the firewall.

It would probably be enough to modify only the "net.outgoing_ip" parameter, since uTorrent will be listening for incoming connections from any interface.

===

If you really want to avoid reconfiguring uTorrent when you change servers, you could try using using ForceBindIP:

It does seem to work (almost, see below) for 32-bit applications running on 64-bit systems, except that the file BindIP.dll needs to go in C:\Windows\SysWOW64, rather than C:\Windows\System32.

I said ForceBindIP "almost" works because I was not able to get it to pass a parameter to uTorrent. I use the "/recover" parameter to uTorrent.

ForceBindIP also worked with Deluge, except again, I could not get a parameter passed through.

To be clear, for the purpose here you would need to note this blurb from the ForceBindIP site:

"To find out the GUID of your interface, run regedit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces. Find the interface which has the dynamic address and then copy the key name."

===

My solution to having to reconfigure uTorrent was to modify the OpenVPN client so that I can override the IP address used on the interface:

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If you don't modify the uTorrent parameters, then when the default gateway is in place, uTorrent will try to use that for outgoing traffic, and be blocked by the firewall.

Thank you very much for the reply, indeed that's what it seemed to happen when I tried. I will have to try your suggestions and see what happens. If worse comes to worse I can always use Vuse instead.

Vuze is not well accepted by private trackers.

I did a bit more googling and playing with this.

I mentioned that I pass parameters to uTorrent and Deluge when I start them (to do with allowing multiple instances) and that ForceBindIP.exe would not let me pass parameters (it seems that leading "/" or "-" is related to this issue). I found an alternative way to inject the BindIP.dll DLL. To keep this brief, I will give a few links relevant to this and then a recipe.

My server motherboard has two embedded network cards, only one of which I use, and I have TeamViewer installed with their proprietary VPN service. I uninstalled OpenVPN (possibly optional), then in device manager I uninstalled the driver (properties -> driver -> uninstall) for the unused network card, disabled the now unrecognized device, and disabled the logical VPN network card created by TeamViewer, and then I reinstalled OpenVPN. Afterwards, connected to AirVPN, uTorrent connected normally with good bandwidth and all tests passed. I reenabled the TeamViewer logical card without negative effect, and I left the unrecognized auxiliary embedded network card disabled. It should be noted here that the TeamViewer logical VPN network card and the OpenVPN logical card BOTH identified as "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3" in ipconfig, which points to some conflict between the two logical cards.

On the laptop, the Wifi connection was considered to be a PUBLIC connection by Windows firewall. I unticked the "Block all incoming connections..." option in start -> Windows Firewall -> Turn Windows Firewall on or off (NOT start -> Windows Firewall with Advanced Security), and uTorrent behaved normally. The TeamViewer logical card created no conflics on this system, which has only one physical network card, pointing to the auxiliary network card on the server as a contributing factor in the device conflict with the TeamViewer logical VPN network card.

This takes me back to the days of IRQ conflicts on ISA boards!

I hope this helps somebody. Thanks for the great howto! On with the procedure....

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I have a question about this. While uTorrent 3.0 will not bind to an interface, 'the net.bind_ip' and 'net.outgoing_ip' settings will accept '10.4.0.0/16' as specified input. With these settings, uTorrent connects normally. With the VPN disconnected, uTorrent fails to find any trackers or make incoming connections. This seems to be the desired behavior. Where is the flaw in this plan? Thanks!

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I have a question about this. While uTorrent 3.0 will not bind to an interface, 'the net.bind_ip' and 'net.outgoing_ip' settings will accept '10.4.0.0/16' as specified input. With these settings, uTorrent connects normally. With the VPN disconnected, uTorrent fails to find any trackers or make incoming connections. This seems to be the desired behavior. Where is the flaw in this plan? Thanks!

I use uTorrent 2.2.1. My experience with later releases is very problematic. And many private trackers do not allow uTorrent releases later than 2.2.1. I am pretty sure that I tried this with 2.2.1 and it did not work.

If you say it works for later releases, I will have to take your word for it.

Did you use Processor Explorer to check what interface is being used?

And did you have the VPN "suspended"? That is, real/original gateway back in place while doing this? So it was not just falling back to the VPN as default gateway?